Gamma Ray Bursts

November 20, 2023

About two billion years ago in a galaxy far beyond our Milky Way, a massive star exploded (called supernova) that unleashed a huge burst of gamma rays, which pack the most energy of any wave in the electromagnetic spectrum.
Those waves traversed the cosmos and finally reached Earth last year.
Scientists previously determined that this was the strongest such burst ever detected.
This gamma-ray burst caused a significant disturbance in Earth’s ionosphere.
- It is a layer of the planet’s upper atmosphere that contains electrically charged gases called plasma.
- The ionosphere is situated about 30-600 miles (50-950 km) above Earth’s surface, stretching to the very edge of space.
- It helps form the boundary between the vacuum of space and the lower atmosphere inhabited by people and Earth’s other denizens.
- The ionosphere, which helps protect life on Earth by absorbing harmful ultraviolet rays from the sun, is highly sensitive to changing magnetic and electrical conditions in space, usually connected to solar activity.
- It also expands and contracts in response to solar radiation.
The gamma rays from the burst impacted Earth’s atmosphere for a span of about 13 minutes in October, 2022.
They were detected by the European Space Agency’s Integral (International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) space observatory and various satellites orbiting close to Earth.